Al Bilad newspaper The first death due to “Alaska smallpox”… Learn about the infection – 2024-02-16 18:41:11

Alaska health officials announced the discovery of the first death linked to a recently discovered virus, called “Alaska Boxpox,” or “Alaska Smallpox.”

Since its discovery in 2015, 7 cases of Alaska smallpox have been reported, according to the state Department of Health. The latest case was identified in an elderly man who died last month.

“This is Alaska’s first case of severe infection resulting in hospitalization and death,” the Department of Health said in a statement last week.

Officials noted that the man had a weakened immune system due to cancer treatment, which likely contributed to the severity of his illness.

Experts say the disease is often mild and that infection remains rare in humans, with the virus primarily found in small populations of mammals throughout Alaska.

“Six of the seven cases were mild and self-limited, so the patient did not even need to get any supportive care from a health care provider,” Dr. Joe McLaughlin, state epidemiologist and head of Alaska’s Department of Epidemiology, told CNN. At the Alaska Department of Health.

However, McLaughlin said there is still a lot that is not known about the virus, including how it spreads from animals to humans and how long it has been around.

What is Alaska pox?

Alaskan smallpox was only recently discovered, but McLaughlin noted that the virus is endemic in small populations of mammals in Alaska, and regularly infects voles and red-backed voles, as well as other rodents such as red squirrels.

The virus belongs to the Orthopox (orpoxvirus) family, which also includes well-known viruses such as smallpox and Embox (monkeypox), which mostly infect mammals and cause skin lesions.

McLaughlin pointed out that “Alaskabox” belongs to “Old World” viruses, and is usually found in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

“It is very likely that this virus has been present in Alaska for hundreds, if not thousands of years,” he said.

However, the appearance of more cases of Alaska smallpox does not mean that the virus has become more widespread among the state’s small mammals in recent years.

“What has changed is the awareness of doctors and the general public that the Alaskan bug virus is a possibility,” McLaughlin explained. “The cases could have occurred before 2015, and were just non-clinical or moderate clinical cases, so they were not diagnosed.”